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Beyond Age and Gender:

Young Moro Women Lawyers Lead
the GPH Legal Team
How two young Moro women under 30 guided the GPH panel
on the legal issues that clinched the peace agreement.
By MA. LOURDES VENERACION-RALLONZA
THERE ARE TWO interesting but not surprising facts about women lawyers and their participation in peace
negotiations. One is that the feminization of the legal profession by increasing the number of women lawyers and
closing the gender gap in the feld has yet to be attained. A 2010 study conducted by Ethan Michelson, found that no
country has reached the threshold of increasing the number of women lawyers to 30 percent.
Second is that the involvement of women in peace negotiations is notably low. A 2008 study cited by UN Women
observed that out of 33 peace negotiations documented, only four percent (or 11 out of 280) were led by women. The
study also noted that, on the average, womens participation in government negotiating panels was only at seven
percent, but higher than the number of women in delegations of non-state armed groups.
Both these realities are being challenged in the Philippines.
First, there has been sustained growth in the number of women entering the legal profession. Although gender parity
is yet to be attained, the current available data is most positive: there are more women entering law school, about 40
percent of those who pass the bar exams are women, and there are more women lawyers than men working in the
academe and civil society organizations.
Second, regarding peace negotiations, a very signifcant element of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) team
Atty. Johaira Wahab Atty. Anna Tarhata Basman
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worked with. The exposure provided
Johaira with the socio-political
context that the panel worked in and
an understanding of their concerns
and challenges. This gave her the
basis for foresight and therefore,
suffcient information to defne how
the team should be organized and
what our primary tasks and priorities
should be so that we can be most
useful to the panel.
As the responsibilities of the legal
team crystallized, Johaira was able
to defne more clearly the kind of
work she needed to do for the panel.
Attending panel meetings, she
constantly reviewed and evaluated
the legal feasibility of the ideas being
advanced. Part of my job was to
make sure solutions we stand by are
the best we can come up with at any
given time, and are at the same time,
politically and legally feasible.
She prepared draft texts for the
panel, which she usually had to do
from scratch, with no set format. She
had to decide on the best format for
the frst draft and hoped that this
would be appropriate to facilitate
productive discussions. She provided
panel members with memos to guide
them on legal concerns, and gave
them outlines of arguments she
thought were important to consider.
In other words, says Johaira, It was
my job to make sure that the panel
had all the information necessary
and available to guide them in the
discussions and decision points that
needed to be made.
As such, part of her evolving tasks
although not so much as head of
legal, but more for her being a Moro
was to provide the panel with her
insights on cultural and religious
sensitivities to help clarify some
behavior and ease tensions at the
table.
in the peace talks with the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
is the involvement of highly
competent women as negotiators
and as technical support to the panel.
Specifcally, the GPHs legal team has
been led by two young Moro women
lawyers, Atty. Johaira Wahab and
Atty. Anna Tarhata Sumande Basman,
both of who are under 30 years old.
Both women graduated from the
University of the Philippines College
of Law, both were recruited by the
former Chief Negotiator of the GPH
Panel and now Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court, former law
school Dean Marvic Leonen, and
both worked as research assistants/
associates at the UP Institute of
Human Rights. These women take
pride in their Moro identity, and
tirelessly work to contribute to peace
in Mindanao.
Atty. Johaira Wahab
Johaira initially enrolled in the
INTARMED Program of the UP College
of Medicine before she decided to
move to UP Diliman to pursue an
undergraduate degree in Philosophy
as a pre-law course. She entered the
UP College of Law in 2005 where,
along with her studies, she worked
as a research assistant at the UP
Institute of Human Rights.

At around this time, she had the
opportunity to learn about gender
and Islam through a program
conducted by the Nisa Ul Haqq Fi
Bangsamoro. In 2008, she helped
organize a forum on the MOA-AD at
the UP College of Law and was invited
by Dean Leonen to help prepare
a case on behalf of stakeholders
to be fled at the Supreme Court.
Thereafter, she was invited by
Dean Leonen to be a researcher for
a consortium of members of the
academe from different universities
and colleges who wanted to advance
the peace process after the failed
MOA-AD.
It was in this consortium where she
worked with Prof. Miriam Coronel-
Ferrer, who is now Chair of the GPH
Panel. Early in 2010, several months
after taking her oath as a lawyer and
while working for a private law frm,
she received a Facebook message
from Dean Leonen informing her
that he had been invited to be the
Chief Negotiator of the GPH Panel in
the negotiations with the MILF and
asking her if she would be willing
to leave the law frm and head the
GPH legal team, in the event that he
accepted the post. As Johaira recalls:
It was an easy decision for me,
considering the subject matter and
objectives of the peace process, and
the people I would be working with.
I knew that I wanted to do it. The
diffcult part was to convince people
that it would be worth the risk, the
effort, time and energy. At that time,
people had very little hope, if at all, in
the peace process.
Taking the helm of the GPH legal
team was a serious challenge. As
Johaira explains, head of the legal
team was not exactly an offcial
position in the organizational
structure of the GPH panel. It was
only a functional element that Chair
Leonen wanted to be an integral
part of the panel that he would lead.
Johaira recalls that she needed to
locate and defne the role and place
of the legal team in the work of the
panel and carve this out based on
the objectives of the negotiations,
the objectives of the GPH in the
negotiations, and the resources that
were available.
As head of legal, she was invited to sit
at and observe meetings of the panel
with its principals and constituencies,
and had access to most of the
documents that the panel members
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of growth and discernment. Peace
requires humility and the ability to
lay down our values for continual
re-evaluation and assessment. The
trouble with the pursuit of peace
is that it can only be as simple or
as complex as the people involved.
Therefore, anyone who wants to
be a peace advocate should be
comfortable with diffculty and
willing to work with questions that
might have no ready answers. This is
a thankless job: the only reward for
the pursuit of peace is the promise
of peace. Who knows whether we
might ever get there? But most times
a promise is more than enough as
something to live for. Finally, and
most importantly, when you are a
peace advocate, remember that its
not about you. There is no one person
who is indispensable, though we need
everyone to make it work. So you can
forget everything else that people say
about this kind of a job, but just dont
forget that last one: its not about
you.
Atty. Anna Tarhata Sumande
Basman
Anna Basman graduated from
the University of the Philippines
in 2007 with a degree in Public
Administration. Thereafter, she
entered the UP College of Law
where, like Johaira, she worked as a
research associate at the UP Institute
of Human Rights. In August 2010,
as Dean Marvic Leonen was forming
the legal team that would assist the
GPH Panel in the peace talks with the
MILF, Anna was recruited as a legal
researcher. She worked with the team
until February 2012.
The following year, after taking the
Bar exams, she was asked by Prof.
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer (who was
already the Chair of the GPH Panel)
to re-join the legal team. By this
time, the FAB had been signed and
Anna understood the criticality
discussion became a sensitive,
heated almost personal, exchange
between the parties. Despite
this, gender became part of the
Framework Agreement text and is
now a benchmark in the history of
peace agreements in the country.
Johairas experience in providing
technical support to the GPH Panel
and as head of its legal team helps her
greatly in her new role as a member
of the Transition Commission (TC).
Initially, she felt that, once again, she
would need to locate and defne the
role of the TC in the peace process
and her own role in it. At frst, she
found it strange that she no longer
had to receive instructions from
others or assist them. She is now in
a position to make her own decisions
on substantive issues, argue her own
points and make her own stand. Most
notably, she sees the great value of
consultation, inclusiveness and the
need for transparency in the work
of the TC. And, as a commissioner,
she puts premium on upholding the
integrity of the peace process.
To young women who wish to
contribute to peace in Mindanao,
Johaira says:
Peace is not a document or an event
that takes place over night or even
over decades. It is a social process
In detailing her work as head of
the legal team, Johaira explains
that her tasks were not really
determined by any fxed list of
things to do, but the need to be
resourceful, creative and proactive
in assisting the panel in what may be
necessary for continuous progress
in the substantive aspect of the
negotiations.
Recalling her most memorable
positive experience as part of GPH
legal team, Johaira speaks about the
evening the text of the Framework
Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB)
was completed:
It felt surreal to me. For several
months, that document was just
a draft document on my screen
which we had turned around and
over and analyzed in all imaginable
ways. While we were aware of its
signifcance, when it was completed,
it was overwhelming to realize this
document is intended to deliver
change (for the better) to the lives
of so many thousands. That evening,
I felt the weight of the enormous
promise that those dozen pages
contained.
She also recalls that one of her
most stressful experiences during
the negotiations was when gender
came into the picture because the
Johaira Wahab confers with Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong
(left) and North Cotabato Rep. Jesus Sacdalan (right) on the Bangsamoro
Transition Commission.
14 15 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN March 2014 March 2014
the MILF Panel) who are mutually
workaholics and emotionally invested
in the work that we do, you cant help
but share most of your time together.
Thus, our combined relationships
are defned by light (when we share
personal stories, snacks, and jokes),
diffcult (when sensitive matters are
under discussion and everybody is
just tired from the ongoing talks), and
high moments (when the Panels agree
on diffcult issues and we egg the ICG
members to treat us all to ice cream).
Undeniably, Anna gets genuine
satisfaction when her legal team
is able to assist the panel with the
necessary preparations for the
negotiations.
To young women who want to
contribute to peace in Mindanao,
Anna says:
This is the perfect moment to fnd
your place in the wide-open spaces
of the peace process. Everyone is
welcome, encouraged even, to look
for ways and means to support this
noble endeavor. Roles have long been
demolished and lines have long been
blurred. It has become imperative
for everyone man, woman, and
child to fnd their niche in the peace
process and contribute to attaining
lasting peace in Mindanao. The
generations to come deserve no less.
of the subsequent months of the
negotiations. At the same time, she
also knew that Atty. Johaira Wahab
would be appointed as a member of
the Transition Commission and the
GPH Panel urgently needed someone
who was familiar with the process.
The decision to join the legal team at
this stage of the negotiation was not a
diffcult one. For a Moro like herself,
Anna says, It is more of an honor and
privilege than a job to be part of this
process.
In explaining the role of the legal
team, Anna focused primarily on
providing technical assistance
to the GPH panel and coming up
with the governments positions
in the negotiations. To a large
extent, before a scheduled round
of talks with the MILF, the legal
team discussed and negotiated with
lawyers and technical personnel in all
relevant government agencies to frm
up the GPH Panels position.
During negotiations, they formed
special teams to discuss diffcult and
more technical concerns with their
counterparts in the MILF. More
recently, the legal team also assisted
the panel in explaining to various
stakeholders, the content of the
negotiated documents. Currently,
they are communicating with the
legal and technical staff of Congress
to assist them and their principals
in understanding the FAB and its
Annexes.

Annas transition to the head of the
GPH legal team was quick and left her
little time to prepare.
It was in the middle of the
negotiations for the remaining three
Annexes and the transition was only
for a short period (about 1-2 weeks).
There was not much time for a
regular learning curve as everything
was happening all at the same time.
The Panel was already scheduled
to have regular discussions with
the Cabinet to vet the Annexes on
Wealth and Power Sharing, there was
an upcoming round of talks in KL,
the Transition Commission was just
formed, etc. This meant a lot had to
be done on the technical aspect of
the process a lot of briefng papers,
presentations and meetings. Hence,
my frst few nights back with the
Panel were spent familiarizing myself
with the many documents, getting
updates on the negotiations, and
getting acquainted with the people
and the processes involved.
She learned quickly, on the job, that
she fnds particularly challenging.
Foremost, she has to have some
degree of expertise on the different
areas and topics of all the signed
agreements. Secondly, she needs to
communicate the content of these
agreements to various stakeholders
and audiences. For Anna, striking
the proper balance in conveying the
message is a constant challenge and
a continuing opportunity to develop
the best way to do this.
When asked about her most
memorable experience as head of the
legal team, Anna explains that the
negotiations have been a collection of
memorable moments. She narrates:
When you have bosses (in the GPH
Panel) and their counterparts (in
Anna Tarhata Basman to young women: Find your niche in the peace process.